A year after traffic trying to enter Arches National Park in Utah backed up onto a U.S. highway and caused police to temporarily close the entrance, park officials are urging visitors planning to visit during the Memorial Day weekend to show up early.

Six years after National Park Service officials set aspirational goals to reduce plastic waste across the park system by installing water-filling stations for the public, the agency has fallen far short of its hopes.

It's rich political theater, watching the ongoing debate over a possible national park in Maine's North Woods, as well as the long-running efforts to resolve land-use practices on millions of federal acres in Utah. Boasts have been made, promises allegedly discarded, and no resolution in either state has been made.

In taking three years to craft their blueprint for how public lands should be managed across a large portion of Utah, U.S. Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz have produced a smoke-and-mirrors view of conservation, one that uses the right language but disguises their true goals in obfuscation and fine print.

Legislation that addresses the use of 18 million acres of public lands in Utah contains "something for everyone to like, and something for everyone to hate," U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop said Wednesday while publicly releasing the 65-page measure he believes can gain congressional passage this year.

A National Parks Conservation Association campaign launching today is designed to rally public support against threats facing such iconic national parks as Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon with hopes the Obama administration will step up and use the tools and authority it has to protect the parks.

If you've read Part 1 of Rebecca Latson's armchair photography guide to Arches National Park, then you should be all set for a continuation with Part 2 as Rebecca takes you through the rest of the park, showing you places to capture wonderful images from pullouts, paved view areas, along the trail of a popular hike and even from a campground.